The present invention relates to a disk cartridge incorporating a disk-shaped recording medium such as an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk or the like.
Conventionally, a disk such as an optical disk or the like is used in a disk-shaped recording medium. These disks are frequently used by being incorporated in a disk cartridge to prevent recording/reproducing error from causing by adhesion of dust and dirt or the like to a record face.
In the meantime, according to a disk-shaped recording medium, when the record density remains the same, naturally, the larger the diameter, the larger the record capacity. Meanwhile, when a disk-shaped recording medium mentioned above is used as a recording medium of a portable recording/reproducing device, for example, a video camera or the like, a small-sized disk is excellent in portability. Therefore, disks having different sizes may be used for a disk of a portable device and a disk of a stationary device. In this case, a small-sized one is naturally used for a disk cartridge used in the portable disk. When the recording system remains the same and the size of disk differs, if the disk can be mounted to a recording/reproducing device, record/reproduction can be carried out by recording/reproducing means installed to the recording/reproducing device. Therefore, by taking only a disk from a small-sized disk cartridge and switching it to a disk cartridge having an outer configuration the same as that of a disk cartridge of a stationary device, the disk for potable use can be recorded/reproduced by a recording/reproducing apparatus for stationary use.
As a structure for taking out a disk from a disk cartridge, there is provided a method of arranging a portion capable of inserting and detaching a disk at a portion of a disk cartridge as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. JP-A-5-242626.
FIG. 20 shows a conventional structure of taking out a disk from a disk cartridge. A disk insertion and detachment port 12c is installed at a position other than a position arranged with a shutter 3c and a disk insertion and detachment port opening and closing member 8c is arranged there. Normally, according to the disk insertion and detachment port opening and closing member 8c, a locking claw 9 is fitted to a locking hole 13 installed to a disk cartridge 1c and the disk insertion and detachment port 12c is closed. In taking out a disk 4, the locking claw 9 is disengaged from the locking hole 13 and the disk insertion and detachment port opening and closing member 8c is rotated centering on a fulcrum, the disk insertion and detachment port 12c is opened and insertion and detachment of the disk 4 is carried out. In this case, the taken out disk 4 is handled by the hand and accordingly, the record face may be touched erroneously by the hand and may be contaminated thereby.
Further, the disk cartridge may be provided with information inherent to an incorporated disk. In that case, holes or notches are provided on the surface of the cartridge and information of the disk is transmitted to the device side by presence or absence of the holes or the notches. As information provided to a disk cartridge, there are, for example, information which can be switched by a user as in prevention of recording to prevent erroneous recording and information which has been determined from the start in respect of an incorporated disk as in differentiation of a disk for music from a disk for recording computer data. When the disk is moved between different cartridges, according to the conventional method, only the disk is moved and information provided to a disk cartridge mentioned above is not moved.
Further, in recent years, a disk both faces of which are used as signal faces as in DVD-ROM/RAM has been spreading. In the case of such a disk, a printed face is difficult to set on the disk and accordingly, a user is difficult to grasp later information concerning the disk, that is, what file name of data, software name, controller, date and so on are written therein. When a disk is moved between different cartridges, according to the conventional method, only the disk is moved, the disk is difficult to discern when it is taken out from the disk cartridge and a disk to be exchanged may be taken wrongly.
The present invention provides means for moving a disk without directly in touch with it when the disk is moved between disk cartridges.
That is, there is provided a moving method for moving a disk along with a disk holder as means for moving the disk without directly being in touch with the disk and according to the method, a disk cartridge is constituted by a main body portion and a disk holder and when a disk is moved, the disk is held by the disk holder, the disk is moved along with the disk holder and accordingly, it is not necessary to directly touch the disk.
For this purpose, there is constructed a structure in which a disk holder is arranged to a disk cartridge and the disk holder can be detached from the disk cartridge main body. Further, the disk holder is provided with disk holding member, when the disk holder is mounted to the disk cartridge main body, the disk holding member releases holding of the disk, when the disk holder is detached from the disk cartridge main body, the disk holding member holds the disk and the disk is detached from the disk cartridge along with the disk holder. Further, when a disk is moved between different disk cartridges, the disk is moved along with the disk holder.
Further, there is constructed a structure in which disk holding member regulating portions are installed at inside of a disk cartridge and when a disk holder is attached to the disk cartridge, the disk holding member is brought into contact with the disk holding member regulating portions and are elastically deformed by which the disk holding member releases holding of the disk.
Further, there is provided a reverse insertion preventing means for preventing a disk holder from being inserted into a disk cartridge with a surface and a rear surface thereof upside down when the disk holder is attached to the disk cartridge.
As reverse insertion preventing means, the shape of a disk cartridge main body and the shape of the disk holder are formed in shapes which are not fitted to each other when the disk holder is inserted into the disk cartridge main body with the surface and the rear face upside down and as reverse insertion preventing means, shapes of the disk holding means may be made asymmetrical in respect of the left and right directions.
Further, according to the invention, when the disk is moved between different disk cartridges, disk information held by a disk cartridge can be moved along with the disk.
For that purpose, information in respect of the disk held by the disk cartridge is provided at a disk holder portion. When the disk is moved between the different disk cartridges, the disk is moved along with the disk holder. Then, the information in respect of the disk held by the disk cartridge is provided at the disk holder portion and when the disk is moved to a different disk cartridge, the disk information held by the disk holder portion can be read by a recording and/or reproducing device.
Further, an information holding portion of a recording medium is provided to a disk cartridge main body and the disk cartridge main body incorporates transmitting means for transmitting information held by a disk holder to the information holding portion of the disk cartridge main body in the case where positions of an information holding portion of the disk holder and the information holding portion of the disk cartridge main body differ from each other when the disk holder is attached to the disk cartridge main body.
Further, the information in respect of the disk of the disk holder can be detected at least from two directions.
Further, the information in respect of the disk of the disk holder is identified by presence or absence of notches at least over two faces of the disk cartridge.
Further, in the case of a disk cartridge where movement of a disk is not needed, an outer configuration shape thereof is made substantially equal to that of the above-described disk cartridge and the shape of the portion of holding the information in respect of the disk is made substantially equal thereto. Further, the disk cartridge is provided with a structure where only an opening portion equal to or smaller than the outer configuration of the disk is installed and the disk cannot be inserted into or detached from the disk cartridge by which a disk cartridge having a compatibility with the above-described disk cartridge is realized.
Further, according to the invention, a region for determining the disk information provided to the disk cartridge or a label region to which a user can arbitrarily write information can be moved when a disk is moved between different disk cartridges.
For that purpose, the region for determining disk information or the label region is provided to the disk holder. Or, there is constructed a constitution of providing a label region to which a user can arbitrarily write or erase necessary information and/or a region onto which a label can be pasted. That is, the information which the user can write and/or erase as necessary in respect of a disk is provided to a disk holder portion and even when the disk cartridge main body is changed, the information of the disk remains in the disk holder portion.
Further, the label region and/or the region on which a label is pasted is constituted to previously provide a recess portion of 0.2 mm or more such that it is not raised in contrast to a face where the region is provided even when a paper label or the like is pasted on the disk holder.